Sending a message about superior technology despite tight purse strings, the U.S. Navy this week unveiled a laser weapon that will go on a warship in the Arabian Sea next year.

The Navy said the laser can defend an American ship against incoming speed boats and aerial drones for $1 a shot, with unlimited “ammunition” from the ship’s power supply.

Seemingly a combination of Star Wars and Star Trek, the Navy’s solid-state laser beam is the diameter of a dime and can be set to “stun” or “kill.”

At the low end, the high-energy beam will “dazzle” an aerial drone’s sensors, blinding it. At maximum power, the laser can send a drone down in flames, as the Navy showed in a video of tests performed off the San Diego coast last summer.

“I wouldn’t be surprised in a few years if you and I look back and we go, ‘That maybe was the start of a new age of warfare,’ ” said Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, chief of naval research.

Defense analysts expressed some skepticism about a laser’s effectiveness at sea, where rain and fog may play havoc with a beam of light. The biggest punch might come from the laser’s value as a symbol of military power.

“It’s not a perfect magic bullet, but most of the time it probably works,” said Norman Friedman, a physicist and author of books on the military. “Even better, until somebody actually comes up against it, it’s really scary.”

A young active-duty Navy officer said weather isn’t the only challenge.

In a blog called “Lasers: Not So Fast” on the U.S. Naval Institute website, Lt. j.g. Matthew Hipple questioned whether the laser’s power needs will affect the running of the ship. He also opined that the laser beam may be hard to track and correct if not immediately on target.

“It is important for us to realize the tactical and technological limitations of our new system before rushing too quickly to rely on them too often,” wrote Hipple, who is executive officer of a Navy coastal patrol ship crew.

John Pike of Global Security said the range of the laser couldn’t be much more than a mile, limiting its use to last-ditch defense of the ship.

Still, “There are interesting things one could do with a medium-power laser at short ranges,” Pike said this week. “Possibly you could assist an Iranian Revolutionary Guardsman in a speed boat to embrace martyrdom.”

The Navy’s openness about deploying the laser to the Arabian Sea aboard the redesignated amphibious ship Ponce is seen by some analysts as a message to Iran, which in recent months has stepped up its criticism of the West over trade embargoes.

One of Iran’s naval tactics is to use a group of small, fast boats to “swarm” a larger warship.

“If I were the Iranians, I would not be a happy camper,” Friedman said.

The Navy spent $32 million to build the prototype laser weapon system, or LaWS, which fit easily on the rear of the San Diego destroyer Dewey during last year’s tests.